Finland & Norway May, 2015 (1 Viewer)

Can't believe I've been back over a month....so best write this!!

After being put on a backburner for too many years, 2015 became the year that Finland and Norway would finally be struck off the to-do list! Myself, together with my long-suffering better half Dawn and good friends Matt Eade, Jake Everitt, Ian Barnard and Kev Verlander would hit the countries for 8 days and incorporate the obligatory Finnature trips from 18th – 26th May.
The trip was a big success, with only the fact that spring migration was just as behind here as it was at home meant so many of the expected migrants just weren't this far north yet (annoyingly they were turning up as we left!!). Nevertheless I finished with a trip total of 167 species including 10 lifers and a mammal total of 15 species, 8 of which were new to me.

LOGISTICS:

Return flights were with Norwegian from Gatwick-Helsinki-Oulu and cost £222 each. Flights were late leaving Gatwick (no surprise!) which made our connection in Helsinki a bit tight...especially as Finland is TWO hours ahead of us which we didn't realise at first as we ambled through duty-free thinking we had plenty of time...!! Nice touches with texts giving flight updates was good and flight times were roughly 2.5rs and c50mins respectively.

Vehicle was booked through Rhino Car Hire (on the back of Hertz) and cost £807 for a new 9-seat Ford Tourneo and was a great 'little' motor with no issues on pick-up or drop-off – except the Hertz office had no record of another free driver on the insurance....but as we were gonna pay extra for a third driver they let us have two for one so can't complain. Fuel was diesel and cost roughly £50 each for the round trip of 3571kms. Also be aware that alot of petrol stations are card-only payment.

The Finnature trips are easy to book – but book early! They cost us £260 each for the Oulu & Kuusamo trips because as there were 6 of us doing both, one place is complimentary. We had problems with trying to pay in the preceeding months but all was sorted the week before – so don't worry if they seem unwilling to take your money at first!! Money was paid by bank transfer and meeting details were passed by email and phone. The guide in Oulu was Ari Latja and he was....ok, bit off for a guide imo. In Kuusamo we had the excellent Antti Peuna and can't fault him at all, great guy and a great guide.

Accomodation was booked in advance and as usual was based on price. We stayed in the Forenom Aparthotel in Oulu, opposite the train station and must admit, whilst it looked right dodgy on the outside, on the inside it was pleasantly nice! They sent us a text with a unique room code for each room which was punched in for entry into the actual hotel also – pretty good actually. Cost was €119.70 per room for 2 nights.

In Kuusamo we stayed at the Holiday Club Tropiikki and then stayed here on the way back too – about €83 per room each way. Standard hotel fare but we took advantage of the decent free breakfast on the second stay...and on the first day they made us up a nice packed breakfast to take on the trip too. Easy to find, c5kms north of the town...just look for the Angry Birds!!
On our way northwards we stayed overnight at Neljän Tuulen Tupa which was well worth the €75 per room even if it was in bunk beds!! We arrived after 2100 but they still made us an evening meal.

In Norway we had rooms in Vestre Jackobselv at the camping hostel which was wildly overpriced at 450NOK (c£45) per room...bunkbeds again! Shared facilities weren't a prob as we were basically the only people staying...other than a weird smelly guy! The only other options on the peninsula seemed to be hotels in Vadsø or on Vardø...both of which were well over €100 per night...nah thanks!! Also note that when entering Norway the clocks go back to just ONE hour's difference from us....!
Last night was spent courtesy of the Boreal Wildlife Centre in Viiksimo near Kuhmo in one of their hides for bear viewing at a cost of £110 each...more of that later!

DAILY LOG:

18th – Arrival was at 1730 and by the time we had picked up the van and made our way to the hotel we just dumped our gear and went for a quick look around Oulun Hautasmaa - the nearby massive graveyard....(!) Goodies like Pied Flys, Redstarts, Siskin and cool-sounding Northern Bullfinches were had along with nesting Fieldfares and Redwings, whilst on the mammal-front 1 Red Squirrel was seen along with a couple of Arctic Hares. Dinner was taken in the nearby pizzeria and was bloody good – and the cheapest meal we had all trip!!

19th – After a phonecall yesterday upon arrival from Leena in the Finnature office that our meeting place had changed for our trip today (due to the frankly weird German couple on it already not wanting to drive from their hotel, waah waah waah.....) we drove the 25mins and (after only 1 wrong turn!) pulled into the carpark at the Liminka Bay reserve at 0245. We parked up and said hello to the odd man wandering up and down the carpark, expecting him to be one of ze Germans...but no, he was Ari Latja, our guide for the morning....ok, we'll make the efforet to introduce ourselves first then...

So began our first day out....frustratingly following Ari's daughter (another guide) with a van full of French photographers – again, not what I was expecting as it meant twice the amount of people at the sites and the fact we were always second in the 'convoy' meant we couldn't see ahead on the tracks before everything flushed....hmmmmmm. We visited an area along the 8331 Oulu-Sanginjoki road where we had our only Eurasian Pygmy-Owl of the trip – unfortunately a rather startled-looking female in the nestbox. Apparently the male was particularly unresponsive at this site but we never tried another (even though there were frame-fillers of a male in a tree from a site not far away that appeared on their website a couple of days later – again, we felt Ari never really tried hard).

We then moved onto Kiiminki where the weather began to clear slightly – here we had an active pair of Northern Hawk-Owls, the male bringing in several Wood Lemmings to the female. 3 Reindeer were pretty cool too but the ear-tags and collars were a bit of a disappointment! Also along the roads we had c4o5+ Black Grouse - including 2 males lekking in a tree!, 1 Short-eared Owl, a displaying Greenshank and Snipe, Grey-headed & White Wags, Tree Pipits, Willow Warblers, Crossbill, Siskin, Cuckoo and 4 Common Cranes flying over. Further along the same road we stopped at a site for Ural Owl and soon enough we were watching a fairly large juvenile sitting at head height in a stand of saplings – awesome! One of the adults was soon picked up sitting warily on the edge of the pines, but was unfortunately mostly obscured from view. The nearby lake only held a couple of pairs of displaying Goldeneye.

Onto Pirttikoski where the daughter checked a nestbox for Tengmalm's Owl but drew a blank saying the young must've fledged. As we got back to the van Ari noticed that the front tyre was flat and needed changing. So, ze Germans jumped ship and buggered off in the other van leaving us to change the wheel as Ari didn't have a clue.....anyway, whilst myself & Kev did that little job the others went and heard noises from inside the box so once the wheel was done we took another look – and I saw a head! Well, after that let's just say that we had a good view of an immature.....!

The rain had now began as we made our way to Hummasti – seeing a cool Moose on the way – where we were led through the forest to a hole in a tree where, after 20mins or so, a male Three-toed Woodie poked his head out (which was quite a shock for a couple of our group who assumed we were going for a Great Grey Owl first....."thought the hole looked small" said they...!!)

After waiting unsuccessfully in the increasing rain and decreasing light to see if the other adult would return we left to go literally just down the road where we were soon looking at the absolutely fabulous female Great Grey Owl on the nest. The weather continued to deteriorate so although we were looking at one of the best owls on the planet, the rain wasn't helping. There was no sign of the male so we just drank in the views of the female's massive head as a Woodlark sang nearby.

And that was that....ze Germas reappeared in our vehicle and off we went back to Liminka Bay where we left them arguing with Ari as they were back too early! We went and had a look out from the birding tower where we saw 12 lekking Ruff with 20-odd Reeves, single displaying Blackwit, Wood Sand and Curlew, a flyover Spotshank and Greenshank whilst along the path we had a stunning male Bluethroat. In the bushes we had Whinchat, Lesser White and 3o2+ Pied Flys. Out in the bay were hundreds of Goldeneye, 60+ Whoopers, a single Long-tailed Duck, a pair of Garganey, Tufties, Teal, Mallard, Wigeon, Pintail, an immature White-tailed Eagle and quartering Marsh Harrier. Thousands of mosquitos were a bit of an annoyance but didn't seem to be in a biting mood.

We left the reserve and headed back to the 8331 and drove the length of it where we stumbled upon a group of feeding Northern Bullfinches next to the road. As we were photographing these Matt suddenly called out he could see a Ural Owl in the trees opposite. A mad dash and we were all looking at this gorgeous owl only for it to drop back into the trees. A small path was beckoning so we tentatively wandered down it until Matt again stopped still and pointed right – straight at a cute little Ural Owl sitting on the ground next to the path and much smaller than the one we saw earlier. Eyes now went upwards and soon enough we found the not-so-cute adult glaring and beak-snapping at us as it flew towards the path. A quick couple of pics and we beat a hasty retreat with the youngster almost looking rather bemused with its head half-cocked as it watched us go. What a result!!

As we headed back we dropped into the Pygmy-Owl site again and tried for the male but no joy, only a Sparrowhawk was seen. We bumped into another couple of Finnature guides on a reccy and they gave us a site for Rustic Bunt just back along the road where they'd seen one earlier. We went back for a look but nothing.....

We saw several nestboxes in the woods as we drove along but none had anything home, in fact the only other noteworthy birds we saw were 3 Crested Tits and a stonking Woodcock sitting next to the road. On the way back to Oulu we saw 3 Goosander flying alongside the car and a field with c100 Common Cranes in it and noticed quite a few of the Jackdaws we saw had distinct white flashes on their necks also.

Now.....we got back to the hotel, ate in the great Royal Garden Chinese restaurant just up the road and then had the stupid idea of going to Oulu dump to look for Eagle-Owl. The guides had shown us on a map where to go so off we went at 2200.....Dawn smartly electing to stay behind and go to sleep! We found it easily enough....well, the general area! We managed to get to the dump itself and stood up on a bank that overlooked it – until we were kicked off by a mohican-sporting security guard! The dump still operates at gone midnight and we had not a sniff of an owl, only several roding Woodcock and a Brown Rat.

We decided to get back for some sleep and this is where it all went wrong – we followed signs back to Oulu (it's only 9kms from our hotel!!), then couldn't find any more and assuned we'd taken a wrong turn. Crossing three rivers close together and still no Oulu signs had us look on a map and come up with completely the wrong location some way north.....so we headed south and it wasn't until we saw the airport signs that we realised our mistake: we hadn't been able to see any more bloody Oulu signs because we were already bloody in Oulu and been driving around in circles – twats!! I put it down to complete sleep deprivation....the beds were a very welcome sight that night and the 0500 meeting time was pushed back to 0800!!

Great stuff Adam. You did well on the Finnature trip, despite the lack of enthusiasm from the guide!

Thank you for a great trip report.
Having just completed a similar trip to Finland and northern Norway, I have sympathy for the guides, who are expected to keep the clients chirping no matter what the status of migration or the weather. Plus they need to provide the record shots for the next marketing brochure.
When times are good, it is a doddle, otherwise not so much.

birdboybowley said:

Nice touches with texts giving flight updates was good

They sent us a text with a unique room code for each room which was punched in for entry into the actual hotel also – pretty good actually.

Click to expand...

Welcome to the 21st century...B

Looking forward to the rest of this Adam as I have something similar in mind at some point.

20th – We were out and about by 0830 and making our way towards Oulu port. We parked up on the pull-off just by the pool along Poikkimaantie (see map pic in next post) and began to scan the area. No sign of any Tereks, but we had Wood Sand, 4 Common Sands, Ringed Plover, Curlew, Lapwing, 6 Ruff, Oystercatcher, Curlew and 4 Temminck's Stints. Along the rocks we had stunning views of 2o1+ Bluethroats and a flock of c50 Grey-headed Wags. In the small trees were 2o Whinchats and a Tree Pipit with 4o Wheatears, several White Wags and 2 Scandinavian Rock Pipits running around on the ground.

Offshore was a flock of c50 Little Gulls and c40 Arctic Terns, 1o Goosander and a Black-throated Diver. As we wandered back to the van, another car load had turned up and came over and said they'd seen our target bird disappear onto the rear pool. As we stood cursing under our breath, I scanned to the back only to see the Terek Sand fly up towards us! It flew high over us in its rollercoaster display flight, calling loudly, over the road and landed up on a very tall floodlight and continued to call! Excellent stuff!

We left Oulu via another stop at the Pygmy-Owl site along the 8331 – still no male! We then tried the Rustic Bunting site again along Kuparisenpolku – still no joy! A Hazelhen was calling constantly in the woods by the firepit and shelter (this is c2.5km down the track and was where we were told the bunting had been singing) and showed to everyone else over the next couple of hours....except me!! Poxy feckin' chicken!! The rain had started to fall heavily and this improved my mood no end...

So, with time pushing on and the rain falling down we headed eastwards towards Kuusamo along the 20 which is heavily loaded with speed cameras....so be warned!! Problem with Finnish roads is they're so straight, well-maintained and generally quiet that it's a real struggle to stay at a boring 60mph....luckily this is the only stretch of road where we saw any cameras!

We pulled off the highway to head into Syöte NP and stopped at the still-quite-snowy ski centre where Matt tried to see how far he could run up the ski slope – he got quite a long way actually and found a Galaxy5 in the snow too! But he did miss the brilliant male Black Woodpecker that flew over the road for the rest of us stood at the bottom.....also around were a male Brambling, Mealy Redpolls and a couple of singing Fieldfares. The rain turned to drizzle as the shout went up of Black Grouse from the back – we pulled into the viewpoint at Vattukuru and watched 8 males lekking away in the boggy area....never knew about this site so a very pleasant surprise! 1 Greenshank was also seen. Further along we viewed Lake Virkkunen where we saw a pair of lovely Red-necked Grebes, a pair of Black-throated Divers, a couple of flighty Green Sands, 1 displaying Wood Sand, several Goldeneye and Goosander and a Whooper Swan.

As we neared Kuusamo we turned up towards the dump and looked over the small pond which held a Greenshank, Temminck's Stint and several Goldeneye. We then parked near the yellow gate where we could see quite a few gulls: Black-headed, Common, c10 Baltics, plenty of Scandinavian Herrings and a single 1stsum Heuglin's – nice! We drove further up and walked in through a quarry but we could get no closer. A pair of Wigeon, Ravens, 1o Teal, several Grey-headed Wags and a singing Cuckoo were also noted and a male Smew was seen on the lake by the hotel turn-off.

We arrived at the Hotel Club Tropiikki and saw a Field Vole feeding by the main door before diving back inside his hole behind the drain and a dsiplaying Wood Sand over the carpark. We ate in the O'Leary's bar attached to the hotel which served a bloody good burger! As another early start was beckoning we paid our room bills and turned in.

Superb trip report.
Having also just been there, I can only recommend it, wonderful country, well maintained infrastructure, beautiful wildlife and nice people.
You had better luck than my group with your stunning shots of Ural Owls, multiple Bluethroats and lekking Black Grouse tolerant of photographers...

Super reading and nice pics.

Chasing the Tereks brings back great memories - I have never seen so many mozzies as around there - I'm sure I eventually found one (Terek) on Heitasaari, in the end about 5 mins drive from the campsite.

I would have refused to ze others back in the van after abandoning you - how miserable was that!

I just love the bluethroat shots!

Cheers for the feedback everyone
Next part.....

21st – We met up with our guide Antti Peuna at the Sokos Hotel in Kuusamo itself and the difference between him and Ari was immediate – he was energetic, asking us what we needed to see and very amiable. We drove round the back roads to Lake Kuusamo – seeing a Whimbrel perched up on a streetlight – where we had c10 Muskrats, 2 Red-necked Grebes, many Whoopers, 9 Ruff, Wood Sand and several Little Gulls too.
We then drove round some more of the back lanes where we had our first Willow Grouse – a pair then a single male – and at a different place Antti showed us a cooperative pair of stunning Hazelhens right by the side of the road, but in such low light there was no chance of any pics unfortunately.....but what birds they were – and another male was calling nearby!! 2 female Black Grouse and 2 chunky female Capers were flushed from the roadside. We were then shown a lekking male Caper by some houses that showed pretty well in the treeline and in the trees themselves. A Bluethroat was seen flitting across the road, with Siskin, Mealy Redpoll, Redwing, Snipe, Fieldfare, Redwing and a single Brambling also seen on the drive aswell as 4 Arctic Hares.

Onto a site down Hiltusentie where fog descended just as the Rustic Buntings put in an appearance, with 2 males and a female showing well but distantly. Also here were a displaying Greenshank, 2 Crossbills, 1 Bullfinch and a couple of Willow Warblers. We then drove back northwards to the famous site of Valtavaara and pulled in to the layby. We had a bite to eat and the cool Sibe Jays soon appeared – 5 in total. They came in to the feeders under the trees and weren't adverse to taking tidbits (apparently they will take food from your hand too!). We also had a pair of Willow Tits, Great Tit, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, a displaying Green Sand and a Red Squirrel here aswell as 3 feral Reindeer wander down the road.

We then climbed up the opposite hill in search of Bluetails but failed to hear anything, the only birds seen being Siskin and Mealies. The views were pretty nice as we clmbed through the pine forest with its heather and crowberry floor, covered in patches of snow. It was near the top of this hill that Matt informed us that he'd apparently lost his bumbag....with his money, passport etc in it! We searched the way down – easy to follow the footprints in the snow! – but we couldn't see anything which was a bit of a worry. Antti phoned a couple of guides that were visitng sites we'd been to and asked them to keep an eye out and phoned the hotel to see if it was still in his room....no joy.

So we headed back to check ourselves via a quick stop by the lake on the off-chance that a Pygmy-Owl was about – not a bird that is common around Kuusamo but one had been seen here before so Antti gave it a go – this guy was a proper guide!! Unsurprisingly no joy so we noved on and stopped into Petäjälammen where we were shown a nestbox that a pair of Sibe Tits were making their home. After a short wait the pair soon appeared with nest material and were in and out and gone again!! Great, if short, views! Also here was another pair of Sibe Jays, another Green Sand and 3 Willow Tits.

A quick stop at Lake Rääpyslampi gave us 9 beautiful Velvet Scoter, a pair of Smew, plenty of Goldeneye and Tufties and a couple of Common Sands. We dived back into the hotel and sure enough, Matt found his bumbag in the bathroom...the same bathroom he defintiely didn't leave it in!! Disaster averted! As we drove out there was an Osprey and c30 Little Gulls on the lakes along the main road.

Now came the c45min drice south to Lämsänkylä where, after a couple of calls to his friends to get us on the right tracks, Antti had us looking at a beautiful female Great Grey Owl on the nest in a tall pine on the egde of the clearing! The weather was gorgeous and so was she! Also in the area were several Meadow Pipits, Lesser White, Mistle Thrush, Redwing and a Kestrel. As we moved slightly closer Antti grabbed his scope and amazingly had found the male – how he saw that through those tree i don't know! We walked back along the track and got a bit closer and had fantastic views of the male as he kept a wary eye on us – even Dawn was impressed and began phonescoping!! This was a bird even she wanted to see!

We watched the owls for a good hour but time was slipping away so we had to start heading back to our van...but not until Antti took us via Mikonkorventie for a look at an adult Tengmalm's in a box – this particular box having an old squirrel's nest in it already upon which the owls have nested and thus the hole is level with the female's head! She was showing on arrival and still glaring at us as we left – excellent bird!
Back at the hotel we bade farwell to Antti and then packed up our van, refuelled and headed northwards on the 5, seeing another pair of Hazelhens, 3 female Capers and another female Black Grouse en route. On Antti's advice, we turned off the main road onto the 950 and stopped just before Käylä where two rivers thunder under the road. There is a pleasant little boardwalk past the picturesque rapids and it was here – after a while – that we caught up with a showy Black-bellied Dipper. Along the river 4 Goldeneye were present aswell as a pair of Willow Tits.

We cut back to the 5 and continued the drive north, stopping for a quick food intake and a surprise Reindeer around a corner...our van was not good at stopping...still, woke everyone up!! Dawn took over the driving once we were past Sodankylä and as we neared the Kersilö area I could see two vans and a load of bird nerds lined up, so we swung off the main road and pulled up behind them – and bumped into Killian Mullarney leading a group. They were here looking for Broad-billed Sands but they hadn't seemed to've gotten here yet, so we made do with territorial Wood Sands atop pine treelings, 1o Ruff, 2 Greenshank, Curlew, 1o Pintail, a pair of Teal and a couple of Cranes and several Grey-headed Wags flying over.

We continued northwards to Kiilopaa where we decided against the walk up the hill as time was against us yet again and instead headed to Kaunispää on Killian's advice where you can drive up to the top. We had a good look around but again, Dotterel were nowhere to be found – we had 5 spanking Golden Plovers, 2 Whimbrel, calling Wheatears, several Scandinavian Rock Pipits and 4 House Martins that were nesting under the restaurant and looking odd against a snowy backdrop. The other birds of note whilst en route were 2 Coots (only ones of the trip), another Osprey and several Long-tailed Ducks.

We headed ever north, passed Kaamanen and finally reached our destination: Neljän Tuulen Tupa, or the 'Grosbeak Hotel' as it's known. It was about 2030 by the time we arrived but the staff still whipped us up dinner and beers.....with feisty Red Squirrels and numerous Bramblings – most in breeding plumage – on the window feeders! Out the back amongst the feeders were a singing male Pied Fly and several Siskin, whilst out on the lovely lake were 2 Wood Sands and a splendid Spotshank feeding around its edges. Below the feeders on the seed-strewn ground were 2 cool Grey-sided Voles and a Red Vole...but the light wasn't great and they moved quick!! The rooms were comfortable and had private facilities, so we all hit the hay, excited about tomorrow.